Land disputes flare in Kampong Speu

A villager in Kampong Speu province’s Oudong district holds a portrait of Prime Minister Hun Sen following clashes with police on Thursday morning. Locals say 14 police and 12 villagers were injured as authorities moved to evict 88 families. (Photo by: Uy Nousereimony)

Friday, 19 March 2010
Uong Ratana
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Speu Province - VIOLENCE erupted Thursday morning in two separate land disputes in Kampong Speu province – one in Oudong district and the other in Thpong district – resulting in the injury of more than 20 villagers and police, as well as the torching of a company’s offices.

An early-morning altercation between authorities and 88 families at Oudong district’s Phnom Touch commune broke out when the authorities tried to carry out a Supreme Court-ordered eviction of the families from a 65-hectare plot of land, villagers said Thursday. Twelve villagers and 14 local police were hurt in the brawl.

At about 6:45am police attempted to forcibly evict the residents so that they could bring in equipment to tear down their houses, but the eviction was thwarted by locals who attacked police with stones and bamboo clubs, and disrupted their advance with burning tyres, villagers said.

The police responded by beating them with batons and firing their weapons in the air and into trees where villagers had displayed photographs of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The land in Phnom Touch commune is claimed by the Meng Keth Company, owned by Taiwanese businessman Kuo Sheng. According to a copy of his citizenship request letter obtained by the Post, Kuo Sheng, 62, was granted Cambodian citizenship in 2001 after Hun Sen wrote to then-King Norodom Sihanouk recommending that he be naturalised due to his positive attitude and his role in developing Cambodia.

However, Sun Bun Chhoun, a village representative, insisted that the villagers haven’t sold their farmland to any businessman, and that they would give up their lives to protect it.

Describing the incident Thursday, Sun Bun Chhoun said, “The police did not explain; they just tried to tear down our houses”, adding that eight villagers were seriously hurt after being beaten by the police with batons.

According to another villager, San Mean, about 400 villagers and 150 police were involved in the incident.

“They shot at me, but the bullet just barely caught my ear … the police pushed a pregnant woman to the ground.... They did not care about villagers’ lives,” he said.

The altercation ended around 10:30am when the police withdrew to a nearby location with their equipment – including a fire engine and two excavators. Villagers, fearing the authorities would return, continued guarding their homes rather than take their injured to the hospital, he added.

“We have been here since 1979,” San Mean said, adding that he implored the authorities to stop trying to take over their land.

Ky Dara, a representative of the Meng Keth Company and a partner of Kuo Sheng, says his company bought 223 hectares of land between 1997 and 2000, and that they plan to plant acacia and coconut trees, and build a factory.

“If they say that they have lived there since 1979, please show us a copy of the land documents and we will provide them compensation, because since 1985 our government has released land documents to all Cambodian people,” he said.

“We have tried to avoid violence. We invited the villagers to negotiate, but they did not come, so now I have no idea what will happen to them,” he said, adding that one prosecutor was also injured in the altercation.

“We’ve decided to stop for a while and will find another way to settle this problem later,” he added.

Kampong Speu Governor Kang Heang said: “It’s a simple case: If the villagers beat the police, the police will beat them back.” He added that the authorities are looking to arrest several ring leaders they say are responsible for instigating the protest.

Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said that according to his organisation’s research, the Meng Keth Company did not have the proper legal documents, and simply was trying to use force to take over the land at Phnom Touch commune.

“The authorities should not be using violence to settle these problems,” he added. “They should find a peaceful way to settle the issue.”

Company office torched

In a separate incident Thursday, about 500 villagers from Omlaing commune in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district burned down an office belonging to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat, after failing to come to resolve their dispute with the business.

The disputed land in Thpong district is part of a 9,000-hectare concession to the company. Meanwhile, Ly Yong Phat, who owns sugar plantations in Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey provinces that were developed following evictions, has also confirmed he will participate in a controversial partnership between businesses and the Cambodian military that some observers say could see soldiers used to further the aims of the private sector.

Suon Ly, a villager who joined the protest outside the offices, said people from 11 villages came to speak with company representatives about the land dispute, but that when nobody emerged to talk with the group, they decided to torch the company’s office buildings.

Suon Ly added that this is the third time they have tried to speak with representatives of the company.

Governor Kang Heang earlier this month tried to reassure villagers that the concession would not affect their farmland.

Villagers say the company originally offered compensation of US$200 per hectare of rice farmland and $100 per hectare of plantation land, but that as a group they decided to keep their land because they need it to grow rice, which is essential for their livelihoods.

Adhoc’s Ouch Leng said that the villagers “burned down five office buildings” because the authorities and representatives of the company had failed to respond to their requests for negotiations.

Chhean Kimsuon, a representative of Phnom Penh Sugar Company, refused to comment on the incident, and Senator Ly Yong Phat said he had not yet heard about the fire.

Kang Heang could not be reached for comment on the Thpong district dispute.

World Bank Failed Lake Residents: Complaint

Homes being dismantled on Boeung Kak Lake (Photo: Nicolas Axelrod, The Phnom Penh Post)

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
19 March 2010

Click here to listen to the audio program in Khmer

A multi-million-dollar World Bank land project failed to help residents in an impoverished community in Phnom Penh establish legal land titles, allowing their ouster and leaving them in limbo, a US rights group says in an official complaint.

The World Bank’s Land Management and Administrative project failed to protect the people of Beoung Kak lake in northern Phnom Penh, who were pushed out to make way for a lucrative real estate development, the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions says in a Sept. 4, 2009, complaint.

“As Boeung Kak residents were unable to transfer their customary rights into formalized land titles under LMAP, the project not only failed to formalize their tenure but in effect also degraded their pre-existing tenure status,” the Minnesota-based COHRE said in the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by VOA Khmer.

The $28.83 million land management project was initiated in June 2002 and implemented by the Ministry of Land Management but was terminated by the government in September 2009, just a few months before its final date, for having too many conditions.

Local residents said that in 2006, Sras Chak commune, which includes the Boeung Kak community, was declared an adjudication zone, but when they asked to register their land, they were denied and told they lived in a development zone.

“They don’t have a land title, but they have purchasing documents that some of the new residents bought from older ones, and authorities have recognized them,” said Eang Vuthy, a legal education officer of the Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, which operates in alliance with COHRE.

“The reason why they don’t have a legalized land title was that in 2006 or 2007 the LMAP declared that Sras Chak commune would be an adjudication zone, but the Phnom Penh municipality stopped the registration process,” he said. “They don’t have a land title, only customary rights.”

Vuthy said that according to the Cambodian land law those who live more than five years on uncontested land are the rightful owners.

There are more than 4,000 families of Boeung Kak residents, some of which have been living there for almost 20 years. Most of them are poor people, while some have guesthouse businesses. Many were evicted after the government decided in 2007 to lease the land to Shukaku, Inc., a developer.

According to the Development Credit Agreement for the LMAP, in order to mitigate the potential harm of evictions from state property, an application of the Environment and Social Guidelines, including the Resettlement Policy Framework is required, COHRE said.

However, the framework was not applied in the case of Boeung Kak. Therefore, in addition to the “weakening of the customary land rights of Boeung Kak residents, the protections that the DCA required have not been implemented by the government,” COHRE said.

More than 900 families have so far been evicted from the Boeung Kak area. Some have been relocated to Damnak Troyeung, some 20 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh, while others received a lump sum of $8,500 in compensation.

“We, the Boeung Kak residents, don’t know where else to seek intervention because three countries have announced registration of our land, but now the government says the land is still in dispute and cannot be registered,” said Thai Nary, a local resident who claimed to have settled in Village 22 since 1993. “I am so hopeless hearing that. I cannot even fix my leaking roof. I almost cry every day and cannot stand up anymore. If I raise my roof a bit higher, I am scared that the company will besiege and stop me.”

Thai Nary and other residents have asked for onsite development.

The residents have asked COHRE for assistance, and the case has so far been brought to the attention of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel, according to COHRE documents.

Officials at the World Bank in Washington declined to comment, referring VOA Khmer to see documents posted on its Web site.

An Inspection Panel’s report dated Dec. 2, 2009, posted on the bank’s site, concludes that in order to make an independent assessment for management compliance, “Bank policies and procedures and related issues of harm in the context of the project, the Panel would need to conduct an appropriate review of all relevant facts and applicable policies and procedure.”

The Panel, however, asked the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors to refrain from issuing any recommendation pending a management meeting with the government.

“The Panel, as it has done in similar situations in the past with Board approval, will not take a position at this time on whether the issues of non-compliance and harm raised in the Requester merit an investigation,” the Panel concluded.

After COHRE’s request for an investigation, on Dec. 17, 2009, the World Bank’s Cambodia manager, Annette Dixon, issued a statement saying the bank was ready to support Cambodia to improve living conditions of people who have been resettled or are facing settlement from land facing development.

An initiative for negotiations between the government and the Bank is underway, sources told VOA Khmer

Court Delays Verdict To Avoid Protest Violence

Villagers armed with clubs and slingshots await the return of police after clashes over land in Kampong Speu province’s Oudong district on Thursday morning (Photo by: Sovan Philong, The Phnom Penh Post)

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
19 March 2010

Click here to listen to the audio program in Khmer

A judge postponed a decision in a land case to prevent a repeat conflict between villagers and police, as protesters burned effigies in front of the provincial court Friday.

The court is hearing a dispute over 65 hectares of land in Kampong Speu province’s Oudong district, where villagers say a Taiwanese company is taking over property they claim to have owned for more than 20 years.

Judge Keo Mony said Friday the court would delay its decision, “to avoid clashes between authorities and villagers like yesterday.”

Twelve police and 13 villagers were injured in Thursday’s confrontation, when police sought to break up an assembly of protesters, using electric batons and water canons. Sun Bun Chhoun, a 49-year-old representative of the 88 families in the case, said villagers will protest the court until they get their land back.

Protesters burnt effigies in front of the court Friday, he said, to prevent the judge from issuing a verdict “without thinking.”

Investigators for the rights group Adhoc are monitoring the protests daily, an official of the group said.

Ky Dara, a representative of the Taiwanese company, said the protesters were not the rightful owners of the land, which the company purchased in 2000 to run a paper factory.

Verdict Expected in June for ‘Complicated’ Duch Case

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
19 March 2010

A Khmer Rouge tribunal verdict in the trial of Kaing Kek Iev, the prison chief better known as Duch, is expected in June, although judges face numerous complexities brought about by the hybrid, international nature of the UN-backed court.

Duch’s trial, which ended in November 2009, was a test case for the court. Prosecutors have asked he be given 40 years in prison, while the defense asked for leniency. In his monthslong trial, Duch took responsibility for the deaths of thousands of Cambodians and asked families of his victims to forgive him.

In a lengthy interview with VOA Khmer, Lars Olsen, a spokesman for the tribunal, said the case was complicated in terms the laws involved, the differences in languages among international and Cambodia judges and their search for a suitable punishment.

“They will look at what is normal in other courts in dealing with crimes against humanity and with war crimes when they make decision” Olsen said.

The tribunal is a mix of international and Cambodia judges and prosecutors and includes unprecedented procedures for operation. It is now preparing for its second case, which will try Duch alongside four more leaders—Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith—for atrocities, including genocide.

Women Must ‘Dare’ To Demand More: Activist

(Photo: SRP)

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington
19 March 2010

Cambodian women need to be engaged in politics and prepare themselves to seek justice and freedom for other women, an opposition politician said Monday.

“We, women activists, or politicians, must dare to speak out to criticize political parties to get what we want, which is to free women from domestic violence and injustice, and [against] the denial of access to health service and poverty,” Mu Sochua, a lawmaker for the Sam Rainsy Party, said on “Hello VOA.”

Mu Sochua, who is also deputy secretary-general for the party, urged women to cast their votes for a party that prioritizes women’s health and education and is committed to fighting discrimination against women.

“We have a policy to, firstly, give women resources, knowledge, and money, and secondly, to ensure that they are on the first, second or third place of the candidate list,” Mu Sochua said.

A caller from Kampong Thom province, Sun Thon, suggested that emphasis be put on younger generations of women so that they can be prepared to be agents of change.

Mu Sochua also encouraged women to pay attention to issues around them by listening to the radio to follow the news and “clearly analyze it.”

Cambodia Has Role To Play ... as the most corrupt and lawless country in the world?

Kurt Campbell

Cambodia Has Role To Play: US Official

By Poch Reasey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
19 March 2010

A high-ranking State Department official said Wednesday that Cambodia plays an important role in some US issues, although the two countries sometimes have disagreements.

Assistant Secretary of State for Asia Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said Wednesday Cambodia can help the US in many ways.

“First of all just welcoming the role of the Unites States in Asia is something we very much appreciated,” Campbell told VOA Khmer in an exclusive interview in Washington. “There are a host of new issues we are dealing with in Asia, like climate change, and Cambodia would be affected if climate change continues given its reliance on the Mekong River.”

Under the administration of President Barrack Obama, US foreign policy will focus more on Southeast Asia, he said.

The US and Cambodia recently increased cooperation on many issues, including human trafficking, narcotics and terrorism, but Campbell acknowledged relations had not been perfect.

“There are issues on which our two countries disagree, but one of the things that we are seeking is the kind of dialogue where we are able to balance it,” he said. “We are working closely together with the enduring areas where we still have difficulties.”

The two sides are currently at odds over $300 million in debt accrued under the Lon Nol regime, which the US wants paid back but Cambodia wants turned into humanitarian aid.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the two sides have a good partnership, but they differ on freedoms and human rights.

“The two cultures are different,” he said. “On the US side, there is still a lack of understanding about the reality in Cambodia.”

This year will mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and Campbell said he was looking forward to celebrations in July.

“I think one of the things we want to underscore is our support for Cambodia and our excitement for the 60th anniversary, so that’s why it’s one of the reasons I am looking forward to the visit,” he said.

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Democracy requires opposition leadership

Will Sam Rainsy be banned from the 2013 election?

Friday, 19 March 2010
Ou Virak
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

Dear Editor,

In comments recently published in The Phnom Penh Post, Constitutional Council member and political analyst Sonn Soubert described new criminal charges against Sam Rainsy as an attempt to remove the opposition leader from the country.

In His Excellency’s opinion, the treatment of the opposition leader is similar to the treatment of imprisoned Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the government.

These comments raise important concerns as to the increasingly distressing state of democracy in Cambodia.

In particular, the apparent efforts by the Royal Government of Cambodia to ensure that the eponymous leader of the Sam Rainsy Party is precluded from standing in the 2013 National Assembly Elections are comparable to recent legislative actions taken by the government of Myanmar that serve to exclude Suu Kyi from standing in elections later this year, and which have been described by the US state department as making a “mockery of the democratic process”.

Under new legislation passed recently, in anticipation of the first election to be held in Myanmar since 1990, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, the leader of the country’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, will be precluded from participation in the election on the basis that she is serving a prison sentence.

According to the US state department, the measures – which will also preclude Suu Kyi’s continued membership in the opposition party – ensure that the elections, which are expected before the end of the year, “will be devoid of credibility”.

By way of comparison, Sam Rainsy – the leader of the main opposition party here in Cambodia – has recently been convicted of racial incitement and destruction of property for uprooting demarcation posts on Cambodia’s border with Vietnam, and sentenced to two years in prison in what Human Rights Watch described as a “new extreme” in “Prime Minister Hun Sen’s campaign of persecution of critics”.

On February 26, 2010, two further charges of disinformation and falsification of documents were filed by government lawyers against Sam Rainsy after he posted a number of border maps and other documents on his party’s Web site to support his claim that the Royal Government of Cambodia has turned a blind eye to Vietnamese encroachment into Cambodian territory.

If convicted of these charges Sam Rainsy could face a sentence of up to 18 years imprisonment.

In his comments on the issue, His Excellency Sonn Soubert described the treatment of Sam Rainsy as a “political issue, not a criminal issue”.

Indeed, the comments of Hun Sen throughout the affair serve only to support this conclusion.

On February 25 – the day before the filing of new charges against Sam Rainsy was reported – Hun Sen was quoted in The Phnom Penh Post to the effect that Sam Rainsy would not be able to contest the next National Assembly election in 2013. Referring to his 2005 conviction for defamation and his subsequent Royal pardon in 2006, Hun Sen stated that “this time, the court sentenced [Sam Rainsy] to jail – no pardon this time”.

These comments are important and leave little doubt as to the pointed political motivations behind the charges against Sam Rainsy.

According to Article 34(2) of the Law on the Election of Members of National Assembly, persons who are sentenced to imprisonment on conviction of a felony or misdemeanour by the courts and who have not been rehabilitated shall not be eligible to stand as candidates for election to the National Assembly.

The Code of Criminal Procedure provides for two forms of rehabilitation: judicial rehabilitation and rehabilitation by law. Even if Sam Rainsy is not convicted of the further charges filed against him, he will not be eligible for rehabilitation until three years after completing his two-year sentence for racial incitement and destruction of property.

He will, therefore, be precluded from standing in the 2013 National Assembly election.

On March 12, 2010, Hun Sen was quoted in The Phnom Penh Post to the effect that opposition members disappointed by the drafting process and passage of the Anticorruption Law by the National Assembly ought to put their energies into winning the National Assembly election in 2013.

In view of the efforts by the Royal Government of Cambodia to preclude the leader of the main opposition party from the next election, questions need to be asked about the credibility of the democratic process in Cambodia and whether the next election – much like the one expected to take place in Myanmar before the end of the year – will be “devoid of credibility”.

Ou Virak, president
Cambodian Centre for Human Rights

Cambodia set to renovate genocide museum

(Photo: Reuters)

2010-03-19
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, established in what once was a torture center operated by the radical Khmer Rouge regime, will be renovated, officials said Friday.
Officials said the museum's physical infrastructure will be upgraded, as will its archive of materials that document the atrocities of the ultracommunist regime.

The museum, formerly a high school in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, was turned into S-21 prison after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. Of the estimated 16,000 men, women and children who passed through its gates, only a handful survived. An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of the Khmer Rouge's radical policies from 1975 to 1979.

Culture Minister Him Chhem said that the museum has never had a major renovation. He said the unique photos and documents it holds could be damaged if not better cared for.

The museum's director, Chey Sopheara, said UNESCO will help build two more entrances to help ease traffic, as well as new space for parking, a garden and public toilets. UNESCO is also working with the museum to preserve copies of the original documents by storing them digitally on a computer network server.

The existence of S-21 prison was a well-kept secret until discovered in early 1979 by Vietnamese troops who invaded Cambodia to oust the Khmer Rouge from power. They discovered the corpses of recently killed prisoners, as well as an astonishing quantity of photos and documents that the prison's overseers failed to destroy in their haste to flee capture.

The museum's archive includes 4,186 confessions - often falsely given by prisoners under torture - 6,226 biographies of prisoners, 6,147 photographic prints and negatives of prisoners and other items.

The prison was commanded by Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who is currently under detention at Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal.

His was tried last year for war crimes and crimes against humanity and the verdict is expected later this year.

Cambodian farmers rise up over "land-grabbing"

CPP Tycoon-Senator-Land thief Ly Yong Phat

Clash between the cops and the residents (Photo: Uon Chhin, RFA)

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, March 19 (Reuters) - Nearly 1,000 angry Cambodian villagers rallied on Friday to oppose what they said was land-grabbing by a local business tycoon, the latest in a series of flare-ups over land disputes in the impoverished country.

The protest in Kompong Speu, 48 km (30 miles) from Phnom Penh, came a day after irate farmers burned down makeshift wooden shelters on a sugar plantation, accusing the company of colluding with the authorities to rob farmers of their land.

Villagers who spoke to Reuters by telephone said some protesters had planned to torch offices belonging to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Senator Ly Yong Phat, which was awarded a 9,500-hectare land concession there. The plan was later called off, they said.

Farmer Sun Theng said he had been working the land for 20 years and he and other villagers had been offered meagre compensation of between $100 and $200 for each hectare. They now faced arrest over the torching of the shelter, he said.

"Villagers didn't agree with it but the company said 'if you don't take it, you people will get nothing'. They became angry," Sun Theng said, adding that the protest would continue until there was an amicable solution.

Another farmer, Sao Choeun, added: "The company looks down on us -- how can we survive with $200 per hectare?"

BIG CONCESSIONS

In a move to attract foreign investment to improve its nascent economy, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and farms.

Cambodia is also relying on foreign help in modernising and expanding its agriculture, mining and energy sectors to create jobs and boost exports, especially of commodities like rice, rubber and sugar.
However, that has led to a rise in what rights groups and international donors say is a trend of forced evictions by state officials profiting on the sale and lease of farmland and urban real estate for use by foreign and local companies.

Indigenous Cambodians on Wednesday urged the government to suspend hundreds of concessions awarded to foreign and local companies they say are operating on disputed land.

The issue illustrates a risk for investors in Cambodia, where corruption is rife and land deals are sometimes agreed with influential politicians and officials without going through proper legal channels.

Chheng Sophors, an investigator for local human rights group Licadho, said land disputes were becoming increasingly common and a long-term solution was needed.

"Before giving a concession, the government should study carefully the impact on the local communities," he said.

Kang Heang, the provincial governor, said the villagers had cost the company at least $20,000. He blamed rights groups, rival businessmen and politicians for stoking the unrest.

He said the land belonged to the state and the deal was transparent, adding that arrests would be made.

"This kind of thing is normal. When there's new investment, there are problems," Kang Heang told Reuters.

(Editing by Martin Petty)

Students offer dental care to Cambodia's children in need

19th Mar 2010
Dentistry.co.uk

A group of dental students have just returned from their mission to Cambodia where they helped 1,500 children to better oral health.

Dr Monika Suorn, of the Tooth Angel Project, put together the team for the mission to Cambodia where dental treatment is a luxury and the average five year old has 8-10 decayed teeth.

The project – supported by Grahame Gardner Ltd – saw the team travel to many of the country's provinces, treating 1,500 children across five orphanages, using rudimentary facilities and a mobile dental laboratory.

The students were from the University of Manchester and have since returned to their studies after the three-week trip.

Jennifer Archer, a final-year student in dentistry at the University of Manchester approached Grahame Gardner to ask for support.

She said: ‘Our Cambodian adventure was an eye opener for all involved, from the second day after arrival we got stuck into extractions, fillings, scaling and oral hygiene advice. It was obvious from the start that this was going to be a big challenge! Many of the children had never received dental care and there were a few tears on occasions but, generally, the children were amazing, despite the basic conditions.

‘We experienced all levels of decay during our three-week mission. The average five year old child in Cambodia has 8-10 decayed teeth and some had been experiencing extreme infections and pain. Despite our training to help younger children, sometimes all it took was a blown up glove or a game of football to put a smile on their faces.'

‘We were also able to impart oral hygiene advice and give out donated toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste to all the children during the evening. Not only was the elective project an amazing dental experience but also a fantastic insight into Cambodian culture. We were the first UK students to join the Cambodian Enfants d'Asie (ASPECA) dental mission and we hope that we have now established a successful link that will continue to provide dental care to the children of Cambodia for years to come.'

Jenni's fellow students included Matthew Bullock, Danny Adam, Alex Payne and Shahrzad Dasti.

Grahame Gardner Ltd provided cool scrub suits from their range for the team. In addition they also provided a number of patterned scrub suits for the team to take over with them to give to the permanent team operating in Cambodia.

The team from Manchester University carried out the work with a group of volunteers for Enfants d'asie, which supports more than 8,000 children in 50 centres located in South East Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.

For more information on the project, click here.

If you would like any further information on Grahame Gardner, visit
www.grahamegardner.co.uk.

Cambodian Bans Women From Marrying South Koreans

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Cambodia has temporarily barred its citizens from marrying South Korean men after two dozen women were sold into marriage by matchmakers -- the second time the government has imposed such a ban.

Koy Kuong, a Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the ban, which was imposed earlier this month, would remain in place while the government works to ensure that South Korean men hoping to marry Cambodian women are able to first prove that they are single and don't have a prison record.

''We want to make sure that their marriages are real marriages, not fake, and not involved with human trafficking,'' Koy Kuong said.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun referred the question to the Ministry of Gender Equality, but phones there rang unanswered on Friday night.

In 2008, Cambodia temporarily banned marriages to foreigners after the International Organization for Migration released a report that indicated that marriage brokers were making profitable business from supplying poor Cambodian brides to South Korean men.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Friday that nearly 60 percent of marriages to foreigners in Cambodia involve Korean nationals, and most of them are arranged through brokers.

The latest ban comes after the March 3 conviction of a Cambodian matchmaker who arranged marriages between Korean men and 25 Cambodian brides.

Koy Kuong said he did not know how long the ban, which applies only to South Koreans, would last.

Cambodia has banned the marriage brokerage business since 2008. Despite the ban, the number of Cambodian women marrying Korean men more than doubled from 551 in 2008 to 1,372 last year, Yonhap said.
------
Associated Press writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.

EU delegation leaves Cambodia, says visit 'largely positive'

Phnom Penh - A delegation of European Union legislators left Cambodia Friday saying they had obtained "largely positive" impressions from their two-day visit, but warned progress was needed in a number of areas.

The EU is Cambodia's largest foreign donor and one its key export markets.

During their two-day stay, the delegation met with members of the government, opposition parties, international donors and civil society representatives to learn more about Cambodia's political situation, human rights and economic position.

Werner Langen, the chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Cambodia had made significant progress in the three decades since the Khmer Rouge "terror state" was overthrown.

But he said Cambodia still had much to do in areas such as human rights and freedom of expression.

"We have made it clear that the EU has international standards that it wishes to see applied," Langen said. "We made it clear that human rights and the state of law are part and parcel of democracy."

Ivo Belet, the delegation's deputy, said the team was also interested in closer cooperation in the field of energy.

"This is a country with enormous potential for renewable energy - solar energy and hydropower energy," he said. "The EU has a lot of knowledge on that issue."

In a reference to the government's ongoing efforts to use the law to pursue its critics, including members of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, Belet said the delegation was convinced Cambodian democracy "is strong enough to afford an opposition."

He added that European Parliament legislators have a responsibility to monitor how the EU's money is spent, not least since it is Cambodia's largest donor.

"But as elected representatives we are accountable to our own taxpayers," Belet said. "We will out of a budgetary obligation keep on monitoring the fight against corruption, which is of course linked to the democratic process."

Langen said the country's new anti-corruption law - which was passed by parliament last week and has been criticized as vulnerable to abuse by the political elite - ought to reflect international standards.

"Even good laws are worth nothing if they are not maintained - and for that you need a reliable and independent judiciary," he said, adding that the law should be applied equally to all.

Cambodia is currently ranked by corruption watchdog Transparency International as the 158th most corrupt country in the world out of 180 nations surveyed.

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and the EU bloc was worth around 900 million dollars last year; the bulk comprised Cambodian garment exports.

By Ancient Ruins, a Gay Haven in Cambodia

In Siem Reap, Bon Theorne serves a drink at old-Shanghai-themed Miss Wong. (Arantxa Cedillo for The New York Times)

March 21, 2010
By NAOMI LINDT
The New York Times

IT was 10 p.m. in Siem Reap, and while most tourists were tucked in after a long, hot day exploring the temples of Angkor, things were just getting going at a bar called Linga. Pairs of European men in their 30s and 40s wearing unbuttoned collared shirts and checkered krama scarves sipped fruity cocktails and jostled for space with the young Khmer crowd, who huddled around small tables in anticipation of the main event: the Saturday night drag show.

A statuesque Khmer performer who went by the name Beyoncé took to the stage draped in a black, body-skimming floor-length gown and wearing a blond Afro wig. Soon, everyone was on his feet, belting out a song from “Dreamgirls.” The traffic outside literally stopped. Curious travelers, Khmer families and little girls peddling red roses craned their necks to get a better view as the song’s syrupy melody wafted into the jasmine-scented evening air.

Homosexual acts are not outlawed in Cambodia, as they are in a few Southeast Asian countries, but outward displays of affection and untraditional lifestyles are rare. Yet in Siem Reap, a small town that gets about a million tourists a year, gay visitors and locals are carving out a little haven. In the last few years, a small flurry of gay-friendly bars, restaurants and hotels has opened up in the city’s center and beyond, with wink-wink names like the Golden Banana and Cockatoo.

The scene is bolstered partly by Web sites like Cambodia Out (cambodiaout.com), which started in early 2009 and is believed to be the first commercial site in the country devoted to the gay community. Other sites like Utopia (utopia-asia.com) and Sticky Rice (stickyrice.ws), which appeal to gay people throughout Southeast Asia, have also raised the city’s profile.

But the new spots also reflect a growing acceptance, in a country that still hews to age-old Khmer values and where the concept of homosexuality seemed nonexistent until recently. In fact, there is no word for “gay” in Khmer. The most commonly used term is kteuy or ladyboys, based on the misperception by many Cambodians that homosexuals and transvestites are one and the same.

The stereotypes are slowly fading. In 2004, after watching thousands of same-sex couples in San Francisco rush to the altar, Cambodia’s much-loved King Norodom Sihanouk wrote on his Web site that gays should be allowed to marry because God loved a “wide range of tastes.”

His successor and son, King Norodom Sihamoni, holds similar views. “The Cambodian Royal Family, as a whole, share the same point of view as the King-Father,” Sisowath Thomico, a spokesman for the royal family, wrote in an e-mail message. “We’ve always been very tolerant about sexual preferences as some Khmer Royals are/were openly gays/lesbians.”

And last year, a lesbian-themed film by the Khmer novelist and director Phoan Phuong Bopha, “Who Am I?” was a sleeper hit. “Love between people of the same sex is a very new topic in Cambodia,” the director was quoted as saying in The Phnom Penh Post, in an article headlined “Who Am I? Brings Same Sex Issues Out Into the Open.”

The new open-mindedness is attributed to Theravada Buddhism, the predominant religion in Cambodia. “When you’re looking at Buddhist countries, you’re going to encounter an openness and tolerance,” said Caroline Francis, a spokeswoman for the Cambodia field office of Family Health International, a public health organization involved with gay-related health issues. “The religious teachings aren’t being used to arrest or persecute people because they’re gay or lesbian.”

One of the first gay bars to open was Linga, an airy cocktail lounge with artwork on the walls and large windows that face the Passage, a bustling and prominent street. Linga draws a mostly male crowd that’s both Khmer and Western and seems to signal a newfound openness for gay Cambodians. And like many nightclubs throughout Cambodia, prostitution and sex tourism are not hidden from view.

“I grew up in a small town, so I know what it’s like to think, ‘I’m the only one,’ ” said Martin Dishman, 48, a former hotel manager from Greenfield, Ind., who opened Linga in 2004. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of Siem Reap’s most visibly gay bars and hotels are owned by Westerners.

A more refined newcomer is Miss Wong, an old-Shanghai-themed boîte with cherry-red walls and gold silk lanterns. While its owner is gay, it caters to a broader clientele. On a typical night, a mix of men and women, expatriates and tourists, artists and entrepreneurs, and straight and gay people all mingled over lemon-grass-infused vodka concoctions and mocha martinis topped with dollops of chocolate.

But Siem Reap isn’t really a party town. Town life revolves around Angkor Wat, and by sunrise the streets hum with tuk-tuks whisking tourists to the temples. “This will never be the place to swallow four tablets of ecstasy and stay up until 4 a.m., dancing under a full moon in sequin hot pants,” said Dean Williams, an expatriate from New Zealand who owns Miss Wong.

That might explain why there are more gay-owned hotels than bars. The newest and arguably most flamboyant is a male-only resort called Men’s, which features 10 sleek rooms decorated with male nude paintings, a large outdoor swimming pool and a sprawling, black-and-gold tiled sauna and a Jacuzzi.

Upscale travelers prefer Viroth’s Hotel, a graceful seven-room haven in a renovated 1960s modernist house. While Viroth’s does not promote itself as a gay hotel per se, the owners Fabien Martial and Kol Viroth do nothing to hide their 10-year relationship.

And the word seems to be out. On a recent Friday night, the hotel’s nearby restaurant, also called Viroth’s, was filled with a sprinkling of male couples sharing bottles of French wine and dishes like chicken curry and minced pork grilled in kaplou leaves.

But for gay Khmers seeking a home, the place to be is the Golden Banana. It started as a humble B & B that opened in 2004 and has since expanded to three properties, including a stylish boutique resort with 16 rooms that feature platform beds constructed of flecked sugar palm wood and soaking tubs on the terrace.

Guests might include backpackers in T-shirts or silver-haired male couples in matching polo shirts, who mingle freely at the palm- and bamboo-fringed swimming pools, sipping lime and mint iced tea. But under the direction of Dirk de Graaff, an expatriate from the Netherlands, the resort has taken on a second role: as a sanctuary for young Cambodian men exploring their sexual identity.

IN a poor country where traditional family remains strong, young Cambodians are encouraged to marry and have children early. Many same-sex couples in Siem Reap still keep their relationship a secret; some have wives for appearance’s sake. Khmer men who visit gay saunas often conceal their faces behind motorcycle helmets until they’re safely inside. And lesbians remain largely invisible.

Still, things are looking up for the city’s younger gay generation. On a recent evening, young staff members from the Golden Banana — which include both straight and gay men in their early 20s — were laughing it up at the newly opened Heart Rock Bar, an unpretentious dance club across the street from Miss Wong that’s become a popular spot for gay men.

Beyond the glow-in-the-dark hearts on the walls and the stainless-steel cocktail tables, the dark and spacious club offered little décor or ambience, but the crowd of mostly younger Cambodian men didn’t seem to mind. They drank cans of Angkor beer, grooving to Top 40 hits by the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga, smiling broadly late into the night and dancing freely with whomever they liked.

IF YOU GO

HOW TO GET THERE

Flights to Siem Reap from New York require a stopover. A recent online search found a Korean Air flight from Kennedy Airport to Siem Reap, via Seoul, starting at about $1,500.

WHERE TO STAY

• Hotels in Siem Reap commonly give prices in U.S. dollars.
• The Cockatoo Resort (104 Wat Damnak Village; 855-89-986-872; thecockatooangkor.com). Doubles from $80.
• Golden Banana Boutique Resort (Wat Damnak Village; 855-12-654-638; goldenbanana.info). Doubles from $60.
• The One Hotel and Hotel Be Angkor (the Passage; 855-63-965-321; theonehotelangkor.com and hotelbeangkor.com) are separate hotels with one owner in a single building. Doubles from $95.
• Men’s Resort & Spa (near Wat Po Lanka; 855-63-963-503; mens-resort.com). Doubles from $55.
• Viroth’s Hotel (Street 23; 855-63-761-720; viroth-hotel.com). Doubles from $80.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

• Linga Bar (the Passage; 855-12-246-912; lingabar.com).
• Miss Wong (the Lane; 855-92-428-332).
• Viroth’s Restaurant (246 Wat Bo Street; 855-12-826-346; viroth-hotel.com)

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia strengthen [Indochinese] triangle development

The fifth Conference of the Joint Coordination Committee for the Development Triangle of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) took place in Banlung City, Ratnakiri province (Cambodia), from March 16-18, opening new prospects for trade promotion among these countries.

Officials from the three countries and representatives of provinces in the triangle reviewed the results of the second meeting of the sub-committees for coordination between CLV provinces and agreed on modifications of the Memorandum of Understanding signed on November 26, 2008, which incorporated other provinces into CLV: Vietnam’s Binh Phuoc, Cambodia’s Kratie, and Laos’ Champasak.

The CLV conference also approved the proposal on establishing a list of CLV-originated goods that enjoy preferential taxes, and a joint technical sub-committee to devise policies and introduce incentives for more investment into CLV.

Participants in the event agreed that Vietnam will host meetings on the development of CLV tourism.

Previously, a CLV market was held in Banlung City on March 14-15, attracting businesses from CLV provinces.

Klaus hosts dinner for Cambodian king

Czech Republic's President Vaclav Klaus (R) and his wife Livia welcome Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni (L) at Prague Castle in Prague March 18, 2010

Prague, March 18 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus and his wife Livia hosted a gala dinner for King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni, followed by a concert by the child choir Zvonecek (Small Bell), yesterday.

Simahoni, who speaks Czech, has been on a private week-long visit to the Czech Republic since Sunday.

Klaus and Sihamoni had a 20-minute eye-on-eye meeting before the dinner.

The concert held at the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle in honour of Sihamoni was also attended by Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer and his wife, Education Minister Miroslava Kopicova and other guests.

Klaus and Sihamoni also met four years ago. They called for the development of Czech-Cambodian relations at all levels.

On Friday, Sihamoni will be granted an honorary doctor's degree at the Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) from which he had graduated.

Sihamoni, 56, says he considers the Czech Republic his second homeland. He attended primary and secondary schools in Prague and then graduated from AMU at which he studied ballet.

Sihamoni arrived in Prague at the age of nine. The Czechoslovak embassy in Paris was the sole institution that reacted to his parents' effort to secure dancing education for him.

During his previous private visit to the Czech Republic in 2006, Sihamoni was granted Prague's honorary citizenship, becoming the first king to hold the title.

Lettre Ouverte De Sam Rainsy A Hor Nam Hong

LETTRE OUVERTE DE SAM RAINSY A HOR NAM HONG

Sam Rainsy
11, rue Tiphaine
75015 PARIS

Paris, le 18 mars 2010

Monsieur Hor Nam Hong
Vice-Premier Ministre
Ministre des Affaires Etrangères
Membre du Comité Permanent (ex Politburo) du PPC
PHNOM PENH

Monsieur le Ministre,

Je vous écris pour vous demander, dans un souci de transparence, de bien vouloir clarifier aux yeux de l’opinion publique votre attitude par rapport au Tribunal à caractère international qui est en train de juger à Phnom Penh les anciens chefs Khmers rouges pour crimes contre l’humanité.

Le 7 octobre 2009, en même temps que cinq autres hauts dirigeants de votre gouvernement et de votre parti (PPC, ex-communiste, formé initialement d’anciens Khmer rouges), vous avez été convoqué par le Juge d’instruction français Marcel Lemonde pour témoigner devant le Tribunal.

Est-il vrai, comme le rapporte la presse (Cambodge Soir, 15 octobre 2009, "Avis de gros temps entre le Tribunal et le gouvernement" ; The Cambodia Daily, 17 mars 2010, "Testimony of Top Officials Sought At KRT, Again – Témoignage de plus hauts dirigeants à nouveau requis au Tribunal Khmer Rouge"), que vous refusez absolument de répondre à la convocation du Juge ?

Vous savez bien que vous êtes tenu par la loi de vous rendre à la convocation du Juge. Mais pourquoi refusez-vous de témoigner ? De quoi avez-vous peur ? Vous sentez-vous, grâce à votre position dans le gouvernement et dans votre parti omnipuissant, au-dessus de la loi ? Avez-vous la moindre considération pour le Juge Marcel Lemonde qui a été nommé par les Nations unies pour incarner la justice internationale ?

Votre parti et ses députés ont enlevé mon immunité parlementaire pour me traduire en justice dans des procès qui rappellent ceux de Prague. Mais vous, vous vous réfugiez derrière votre immunité blindée pour vous soustraire à la justice internationale, la seule qui soit digne de ce nom dans notre pays placé sous la férule de votre PPC.

Le Cambodia Daily rapporte que des magistrats du Tribunal international ont souligné le fait que, sous le régime des Khmers rouges, vous étiez "dans le secret de la marche du Ministère des Affaires étrangères dirigé par Ieng Sary à Phnom Penh" comme vous étiez très bien informé sur "le traitement des intellectuels au camp pénitencier de Boeng Trabek".

Des anciens détenus de Boeng Trabek ont témoigné sur les "bonnes relations" que Ieng Sary entretenait avec vous, ainsi que sur votre proximité administrative et organisationnelle avec ce troisième personnage du régime Pol Pot, actuellement poursuivi pour crimes contre l'humanité.

Qu’avez-vous fait pour mériter l'honneur d’être "réhabilité" par les Khmers rouges en 1978 alors que les massacres battaient leur plein? (Enquête de Justin Corfield et Laura Summers, Historical Dictionary of Cambodia, The Scarecrow Press, 2003).

Est-ce votre “zèle extraordinaire” à servir les bourreaux ou votre "méchanceté" et votre "sadisme" envers les prisonniers, selon les dires de ces derniers, qui vous ont permis de grimper les échelons khmers rouges?

Pourquoi ne pas aider la justice internationale, la seule qui soit indépendante et crédible au Cambodge, à lever un peu le voile sur ce jugement sibyllin du Père François Ponchaud à votre égard : "Le rôle de Hor Nam Hong au camp de Boeung Trabek n’est pas clair" ? (http://www.eurasie.net/webzine/spip.php?article824)

Pourquoi ne pas donner au Tribunal des éléments convaincants pour répondre à la question que Francis Deron pose ouvertement sur votre rôle à la prison de Boeng Trabek quand il parle de la nécessité de « faire le tri entre "kapos" et vrais prisonniers, entre lâches et victimes » (Le Procès des Khmers rouges – Trente ans d’enquête sur le génocide cambodgien, Gallimard, 2009).

Pourquoi ne pas discuter sereinement avec le Juge de l’accusation portée contre vous par votre ancienne co-détenue Keo Bunthouk qui a affirmé que vous aviez, par vos dénonciations auprès des Khmer rouges, "envoyé des victimes à leur mort au sinistre centre d’extermination S-21" ? (The Cambodia Daily, 12 janvier 2001, "Senate Continues Spirited Debate on KR Bill - Le Sénat continue de débattre vivement la loi sur les Khmers rouges").

On ne peut manquer d’être surpris par l’incohérence de votre attitude :

- D’un côté, vous portez plainte contre moi, pour une affaire relativement mineure de diffamation, devant un tribunal français à 10.000 km du Cambodge;

- Mais de l’autre côté, sur le même sujet que celui de la prétendue diffamation, à savoir votre rôle sous le régime Khmer rouge de 1975 à 1979, vous vous dérobez à la Justice mise en place sur le lieu même du drame en présence de tous les protagonistes encore vivants. Vous abusez de votre pouvoir local pour ignorer et boycotter ce Tribunal international appelé à juger les crimes commis par les Khmers rouges et leurs acolytes. Or, seul ce Tribunal peut faire la lumière sur votre passé et dissiper, éventuellement, les très graves soupçons qui pèsent sur vous. Ce n’est pas en ne vous rendant pas à la convocation du Juge que vous pourriez balayer définitivement ces soupçons. Presque deux millions de personnes ont été tuées par les Khmers rouges avec lesquels vous avez collaboré. Nous parlons ici de crimes contre l’humanité qui ne peuvent pas se résoudre par un euro de dommages et intérêts comme pour un procès en diffamation à Paris.

Peut-être espérez-vous vous faire dédouaner à bon compte à Paris et éviter ainsi votre vrai procès appelé à se tenir un jour à Phnom Penh...

Votre attitude fait preuve d’un grave mépris envers la Justice.

Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Ministre, l’expression de mes sentiments distingués.

[signature]

Sam Rainsy
Député de Kampong Cham